Aleks Kolarov gaining reputation as free-kick king

City have told their set-piece specialists to keep on arguing over who takes free-kicks. Aleks Kolarov is the undisputed king of the crackshots at the Etihad Stadium after his brilliant strike set the Blues on their way to a 3-0 victory over Sunderland on Saturday.

City have told their set-piece specialists to keep on arguing over who takes free-kicks. Aleks Kolarov is the undisputed king of the crackshots at the Etihad Stadium after his brilliant strike set the Blues on their way to a 3-0 victory over Sunderland on Saturday.

But the Serb, fast earning a reputation as one of the top free-kick takers in Europe, had a long debate with Mario Balotelli before it was established that he should attempt a difficult left-footed curler from the left side of the penalty area.

Conventional wisdom has it that a free-kick on the left side of the area is more suited to a right-footed player – and when you have a player who strikes the ball as sweetly as Balotelli, they usually prevail in an argument.

Balotelli and Kolarov had a furious exchange last season, with their team trailing 3-1 to Sunderland, when City were awarded a free-kick on the left-hand side, but that was in a very tense situation, with tempers running high.

Saturday’s dispute was a far more civilised debate, and Kolarov is undoubtedly the senior figure, both in terms of age and the fact he already has two free-kick goals under his belt this season – at Real Madrid and against Aston Villa in the Capital One Cup defeat.

Kolarov had also spotted that Sunderland keeper Simone Mignolet had lined up his wall with the two tallest players to his left, perhaps expecting a right-footed shot, and that meant the Serb had a clearer view over two smaller players.

He promptly bent and dipped his shot over that side of the wall, to justify his decision to take the free-kick.

City coach David Platt said Kolarov regularly stays behind in training to practise his free-kicks, and has reaped the rewards of his hard work this season – his three goals is just one short of his tally of four for the whole of last season.

Said Platt: “Ally deserves the goals he has got in the last few weeks from set-pieces because he has religiously, three times a week, stayed out for 10 minutes and he keeps putting them in.

“Ask Richard Wright – he has got a bad back from picking them out of the goal!

“Ally has put a lot of work in on his set-pieces so he deserves the goals he has got.”

City have a wealth of talent at their disposal when it comes to taking free- kicks.

Kolarov has proved himself to be the best, but Balotelli scored a couple of scorchers in his time at Inter Milan, and is always itching to have a crack whenever City get a free-kick within range.

Yaya Toure has also shown he can strike a mean free-kick. He netted a breathtaking, curving effort for Ivory Coast against Equatorial Guinea in the African Nations Cup earlier this year. Since then, he has shown interest in taking the odd setpiece for City.

Then there is Carlos Tevez, who smashed in a memorable 30-yarder against Stoke City as the Blues secured a Champions League place in 2011, with a 3-0 win at the Etihad Stadium.

With so many candidates, free-kick situations could turn into an all-out discussion, but it is accepted that Kolarov has first claim if he is on the pitch.

After his row with Balotelli last season, manager Roberto Mancini said that would not happen again – in other words he gave his fellow Italian a ticking off for his over-the-top remonstrations with a team-mate, which ended with skipper Vincent Kompany’s intervention.

Platt said the management staff would continue to trust the players to work out for themselves who will take free-kicks.

“We won’t tell them who should take, because it depends where it is, where the keeper sets his wall up, whether it is close enough to the goal or far enough away,” he said.

“The second free-kick Ally had on Saturday was too close for him to get it up and over the wall. But he is in a good run of form taking those free-kicks.

“In terms of one side of the wall being smaller, Ally would look at that. We don’t turn around and say someone should take it. They know, they can picture it and see the goal going in.”

Kolarov’s prowess at free-kicks was one of the reasons Mancini signed him for £16m two years ago – in his time at Lazio he earned comparisons with Sinisa Mihajlovic, who some regard as the greatest free-kick taker of them all.

Mihajlovic holds the Serie A record of scoring direct from 27 free-kicks, during his 14 seasons – for five of those seasons he was a team-mate of Mancini at Sampdoria and Lazio, and he also played under Mancini as Inter manager for two seasons.

In a strange twist, Mihajlovic is now Kolarov’s international manager, so he will no doubt be picking up a few tips during the current international fortnight.

“Ally rates highly in terms of free-kick takers I have worked with,” said Platt. “The one I have seen that was probably better, and Ally would admit it, was probably Mihajlovic – but he would probably admit it because he is manager with the Serbian national team at this moment in time!

“Ally has got power, dip, direction as well, but you don't just walk on and do those things. He deserves everything he has got because religiously he has been out there practising them.”